Table Of ContentThe Project Gutenberg EBook of Leonora, by Maria Edgeworth
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Leonora
Author: Maria Edgeworth
Release Date: March 20, 2011 [EBook #35638]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEONORA ***
Produced by David Edwards, Ross Cooling and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at
http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet
Archive/American Libraries.)
—It was long past midnight,—she had a heap of Mr. L——'s old letters beside her. She denied that she was
in tears.
L
NOTE.
eonora, though not published until 1806, was commenced three years before that date: the circumstances under
which it was written were to a certain extent unique in Maria Edgeworth's life; for we are told that throughout the
time occupied in writing the story, she had in mind the offer of marriage made to her by Monsieur Edelcrantz, a Swedish
gentleman of good position, "of superior understanding and mild manners," as she told her aunt in a letter partly written
before the proposal and finished afterwards. This seems, from the biographies, to have been the only time this truly
good and sensible woman was ever sought in marriage by any man; and it shows some of the good qualities she
possessed, that though she refused him, yet from the respect she bore him and the esteem in which she held him, this
story was written to a large extent with a view to his approbation, though we are told that she never knew whether or
no he had read it.
On the next page is appended a list of the principal editions of this volume.
Leonora, by Maria Edgeworth, 2 vols., London, 1806.
—— Another edition, with Letters on Several Subjects, and An Essay on Self-Justification (forming Vol. IV. of
Tales and Miscellaneous Pieces, by Maria Edgeworth, 14 vols.), London, 1825.
—— Another edition (Vol. XIII. of Novels and Tales of Maria Edgeworth, 18 vols.), London, 1832-33.
Many reprints from the stereotype plates of this edition have been issued in various forms and with varying arrangement
of the stories.
Translated into French in 1807, and another edition in 1812.
F. J. S.
W
LEONORA.
Letter i.
Lady Olivia to Lady Leonora L——.
hat a misfortune it is to be born a woman! In vain, dear Leonora, would you reconcile me to my doom.
Condemned to incessant hypocrisy, or everlasting misery, woman is the slave or the outcast of society.
Confidence in our fellow-creatures, or in ourselves, alike forbidden us, to what purpose have we understandings, which
we may not use? hearts, which we may not trust? To our unhappy sex genius and sensibility are the most treacherous
gifts of Heaven. Why should we cultivate talents merely to gratify the caprice of tyrants? Why seek for knowledge,
which can prove only that our wretchedness is irremediable? If a ray of light break in upon us, it is but to make
darkness more visible; to show us the narrow limits, the Gothic structure, the impenetrable barriers of our prison.
Forgive me if on this subject I cannot speak—if I cannot think—with patience. Is it not fabled, that the gods, to punish
some refractory mortal of the male kind, doomed his soul to inhabit upon earth a female form? A punishment more
degrading, or more difficult to endure, could scarcely be devised by cruelty omnipotent. What dangers, what sorrows,
what persecutions, what nameless evils awaits the woman who dares to rise above the prejudices of her sex!
"Ah! happy they, the happiest of their kind!"
who, without a struggle, submit their reason to be swathed by all the absurd bandages of custom. What, though they
cripple or distort their minds; are not these deformities beauties in the eyes of fashion? and are not these people the
favoured nurslings of the World, secure of her smiles, her caresses, her fostering praise, her partial protection, through
all the dangers of youth and all the dotage of age?
"Ah! happy they, the happiest of their kind!"
who learn to speak, and think, and act by rote; who have a phrase, or a maxim, or a formula ready for every occasion;
who follow—
"All the nurse and all the priest have taught."
And is it possible that Olivia can envy these tideless-blooded souls their happiness—their apathy? Is her high spirit so
broken by adversity? Not such the promise of her early years, not such the language of her unsophisticated heart! Alas!
I scarcely know, I scarcely recollect, that proud self, which was wont to defy the voice of opinion, and to set at nought
the decrees of prejudice. The events of my life shall be related, or rather the history of my sensations; for in a life like
mine sensations become events—a metamorphosis which you will see in every page of my history. I feel an irresistible
impulse to open my whole heart to you, my dear Leonora. I ought to be awed by the superiority of your understanding
and of your character; yet there is an indulgence in your nature, a softness in your temper, that dissipates fear, and
irresistibly attracts confidence.
You have generously refused to be prejudiced against me by busy, malignant rumour; you have resolved to judge of me
for yourself. Nothing, then, shall be concealed. In such circumstances I cannot seek to extenuate any of my faults or
follies. I am ready to acknowledge them all with self-humiliation more poignant than the sarcasms of my bitterest
enemies. But I must pause till I have summoned courage for my confession. Dear Leonora, adieu!
Olivia.
Letter ij.
Olivia to Leonora.
Full of life and spirits, with a heart formed for all the enthusiasm, for all the delicacy of love, I married early, in the fond
expectation of meeting a heart suited to my own. Cruelly disappointed, I found—merely a husband. My heart recoiled
upon itself; true to my own principles of virtue, I scorned dissimulation. I candidly confessed to my husband, that my
love was extinguished. I proved to him, alas! too clearly, that we were not born for each other. The attractive moment
of illusion was past—never more to return; the repulsive reality remained. The living was chained to the dead, and, by
the inexorable tyranny of English laws, that chain, eternally galling to innocence, can be severed only by the desperation
of vice. Divorce, according to our barbarous institutions, cannot be obtained without guilt. Appalled at the thought, I
saw no hope but in submission. Yet to submit to live with the man I could not love was, to a mind like mine, impossible.
My principles and my feelings equally revolted from this legal prostitution. We separated. I sought for balm to my
wounded heart in foreign climes.
To the beauties of nature I was ever feelingly alive. Amidst the sublime scenes of Switzerland, and on the consecrated
borders of her classic lakes, I sometimes forgot myself to happiness. Felicity, how transient!—transient as the day-
dreams that played upon my fancy in the bright morning of love. Alas! not all creation's charms could soothe me to
repose. I wandered in search of that which change of place cannot afford. There was an aching void in my heart—an
indescribable sadness over my spirits. Sometimes I had recourse to books; but how few were in unison with my
feelings, or touched the trembling chords of my disordered mind! Commonplace morality I could not endure. History
presented nothing but a mass of crimes. Metaphysics promised some relief, and I bewildered myself in their not
inelegant labyrinth. But to the bold genius and exquisite pathos of some German novelists I hold myself indebted for my
largest portion of ideal bliss; for those rapt moments, when sympathy with kindred souls transported me into better
worlds, and consigned vulgar realities to oblivion.
I am well aware, my Leonora, that you approve not of these my favourite writers: but yours is the morality of one who
has never known sorrow. I also would interdict such cordials to the happy. But would you forbid those to taste felicity
in dreams who feel only misery when awake? Would you dash the cup of Lethe from lips to which no other beverage is
salubrious or sweet?
By the use of these opiates my soul gradually settled into a sort of pleasing pensive melancholy. Has it not been said,
that melancholy is a characteristic of genius? I make no pretensions to genius: but I am persuaded that melancholy is the
habitual, perhaps the natural state of those who have the misfortune to feel with delicacy.
You, my dear Leonora, will class this notion amongst what you once called my refined errors. Indeed I must confess,
that I see in you an exception so striking as almost to compel me to relinquish my theory. But again let me remind you,
that your lot in life has been different from mine. Alas! how different! Why had not I such a friend, such a mother as
yours, early to direct my uncertain steps, and to educate me to happiness? I might have been——. But no matter what I
might have been——. I must tell you what I have been.
Separated from my husband, without a guide, without a friend at the most perilous period of my life, I was left to that
most insidious of counsellors—my own heart—my own weak heart. When I was least prepared to resist the
impression, it was my misfortune to meet with a man of a soul congenial to my own. Before I felt my danger, I was
entangled beyond the possibility of escape. The net was thrown over my heart; its struggles were to no purpose but to
exhaust my strength. Virtue commanded me to be miserable—and I was miserable. But do I dare to expect your pity,
Leonora, for such an attachment? It excites your indignation, perhaps your horror. Blame, despise, detest me; all this
would I rather bear than deceive you into fancying me better than I really am.
Do not, however, think me worse. If my views had been less pure, if I had felt less reliance on the firmness of my own
principles, and less repugnance to artifice, I might easily have avoided some appearances, which have injured me in the
eyes of the world. With real contrition I confess, that a fatal mixture of masculine independence of spirit, and of female
tenderness of heart, has betrayed me into many imprudences; but of vice, and of that meanest species of vice,
hypocrisy, I thank Heaven, my conscience can acquit me. All I have now to hope is, that you, my indulgent, my
generous Leonora, will not utterly condemn me. Truth and gratitude are my only claims to your friendship—to a
friendship, which would be to me the first of earthly blessings, which might make me amends for all I have lost.
Consider this before, unworthy as I am, you reject me from your esteem. Counsel, guide, save me! Without vanity, but
with confidence I say it, I have a heart that will repay you for affection. You will find me easily moved, easily governed
by kindness. Yours has already sunk deep into my soul, and your power is unlimited over the affections and over the
understanding of
Your obliged
Olivia.
Letter iij.
From Lady Leonora L—— to her mother, the Duchess of ——, enclosing the preceding
letters.
I am permitted to send you, my dear mother, the enclosed letters. Mixed with what you may not approve, you will, I
think, find in them proofs of an affectionate heart and superior abilities. Lady Olivia is just returned to England. Scandal,
imported from the continent, has had such an effect in prejudicing many of her former friends and acquaintance against
her, that she is in danger of being excluded from that society of which she was once the ornament and the favourite; but
I am determined to support her cause, and to do everything in my power to counteract the effects of malignity. I cannot
sufficiently express the indignation that I feel against the mischievous spirit of scandal, which destroys happiness at every
breath, and which delights in the meanest of all malignant feelings—the triumph over the errors of superior characters.
Olivia has been much blamed, because she has been much envied.
Indeed, my dear mother, you have been prejudiced against her by false reports. Do not imagine that her fascinating
manners have blinded my judgment: I assure you that I have discerned, or rather that she has revealed to me, all her
faults: and ought not this candour to make a strong impression upon my mind in her favour? Consider how young, how
beautiful she was at her first entrance into fashionable life; how much exposed to temptation, surrounded by flatterers,
and without a single friend. I am persuaded that she would have escaped all censure, and would have avoided all the
errors with which she now reproaches herself, if she had been blessed with a mother such as mine.
Leonora L——
Letter iv.
The Duchess of —— to her daughter.
My dearest Child,
I must answer your last before I sleep—before I can sleep in peace. I have just finished reading the rhapsody which it
enclosed; and whilst my mind is full and warm upon the subject, let me write, for I can write to my own satisfaction at
no other time. I admire and love you, my child, for the generous indignation you express against those who trample
upon the fallen, or who meanly triumph over the errors of superior genius; and if I seem more cold, or more severe, than
you wish me to be, attribute this to my anxiety for your happiness, and to that caution which is perhaps the infirmity of
age.
In the course of my long life I have, alas! seen vice and folly dressed in so many different fashions, that I can find no
difficulty in detecting them under any disguise; but your unpractised eyes are almost as easily deceived as when you
were five years old, and when you could not believe that your pasteboard nun was the same person in her various
changes of attire.
Nothing would tempt you to associate with those who have avowed themselves regardless of right and wrong; but I
must warn you against another, and a far more dangerous class, who, professing the most refined delicacy of sentiment,
and boasting of invulnerable virtue, exhibit themselves in the most improper and hazardous situations; and who, because
they are without fear, expect to be deemed free from reproach. Either from miraculous good fortune, or from a
singularity of temper, these adventurous heroines may possibly escape with what they call perfect innocence. So much
the worse for society. Their example tempts others, who fall a sacrifice to their weakness and folly. I would punish the
tempters in this case more than the victims, and for them the most effectual species of punishment is contempt. Neglect
is death to these female lovers of notoriety. The moment they are out of fashion their power to work mischief ceases.
Those who from their character and rank have influence over public opinion are bound to consider these things in the
choice of their associates. This is peculiarly necessary in days when attempts are made to level all distinctions. You have
sometimes hinted to me, my dear daughter, with all proper delicacy, that I am too strict in my notions, and that,
unknown to myself, my pride mixes with morality. Be it so: the pride of family, and the pride of virtue, should
reciprocally support each other. Were I asked what I think the best guard to a nobility in this or in any other country, I
should answer, VIRTUE. I admire that simple epitaph in Westminster Abbey on the Duchess of Newcastle:—"Her
name was Margaret Lucas, youngest sister to the Lord Lucas of Colchester;—a noble family, for all the brothers were
valiant and all the sisters virtuous."
I look to the temper of the times in forming rules for conduct. Of late years we have seen wonderful changes in female
manners. I may be like the old marquis in Gil Blas, who contended that even the peaches of modern days had
deteriorated; but I fear that my complaints of the degeneracy of human kind are better founded than his fears for the
vegetable creation. A taste for the elegant profligacy of French gallantry was, I remember, introduced into this country
before the destruction of the French monarchy. Since that time, some sentimental writers and pretended philosophers of
our own and foreign countries have endeavoured to confound all our ideas of morality. To every rule of right they have
found exceptions, and on these they have fixed the public attention by adorning them with all the splendid decorations of
eloquence; so that the rule is despised or forgotten, and the exception triumphantly established in its stead. These
orators seem as if they had been employed by Satan to plead the cause of vice; and, as if possessed by the evil spirit,
they speak with a vehemence which carries away their auditors, or with a subtlety which deludes their better judgment.
They put extreme cases, in which virtue may become vice, or vice virtue: they exhibit criminal passions in constant
connexion with the most exalted, the most amiable virtues; thus making use of the best feelings of human nature for the
worst purposes, they engage pity or admiration perpetually on the side of guilt. Eternally talking of philosophy and
philanthropy, they borrow the terms only to perplex the ignorant and seduce the imagination. They have their systems
and their theories, and in theory they pretend that the general good of society is their sole immutable rule of morality,
and in practice they make the variable feelings of each individual the judges of this general good. Their systems disdain
all the vulgar virtues, intent upon some beau ideal of perfection or perfectibility. They set common sense and common
honesty at defiance. No matter: their doctrine, so convenient to the passions and soporific to the conscience, can never
want partisans; especially by weak and enthusiastic women it is adopted and propagated with eagerness; then they
become personages of importance, and zealots in support of their sublime opinions; and they can read—and they can
write—and they can talk—and they can effect a revolution in public opinion! I am afraid, indeed, that they can; for
of late years we have heard more of sentiment than of principles; more of the rights of woman than of her duties. We
have seen talents disgraced by the conduct of their possessors, and perverted in the vain attempt to defend what is
unjustifiable.
Where must all this end? Where the abuse of reason inevitably ends—in the ultimate law of force. If in this age of
reason women make a bad use of that power which they have obtained by the cultivation of their understanding, they
will degrade and enslave themselves beyond redemption; they will reduce their sex to a situation worse than it ever
experienced even in the ages of ignorance and superstition. If men find that the virtue of women diminishes in proportion
as intellectual cultivation increases, they will connect, fatally for the freedom and happiness of our sex, the ideas of
female ignorance and female innocence; they will decide that one is the effect of the other. They will not pause to
distinguish between the use and the abuse of reason; they will not stand by to see further experiments tried at their
expense, but they will prohibit knowledge altogether as a pernicious commodity, and will exert the superior power
which nature and society place in their hands, to enforce their decrees. Opinion obtained freedom for women; by
opinion they may be again enslaved. It is therefore the interest of the female world, and of society, that women should
be deterred by the dread of shame from passing the bounds of discretion. No false lenity, no partiality in favour of
amusing talents or agreeable manners, should admit of exceptions which become dangerous examples of impunity. The
rank and superior understanding of a delinquent ought not to be considered in mitigation, but as aggravating
circumstances. Rank makes ill conduct more conspicuous: talents make it more dangerous. Women of abilities, if they
err, usually employ all their powers to justify rather than to amend their faults.
I am afraid, my dear daughter, that my general arguments are closing round your Olivia; but I must bid you a good night,
for my poor eyes will serve me no longer. God bless you, my dear child.
Letter v.
Leonora to her mother.
I agree with you, my dear mother, that in these times especially, it is incumbent upon all persons, whose rank or
reputation may influence public opinion, to be particularly careful to support the cause of female honour, of virtue, and
religion. With the same object in view, we may however differ in the choice of means for its attainment. Pleasure as well
as pain acts upon human creatures; and therefore, in governing them, may not reward be full as efficacious as
punishment? Our sex are sufficiently apprised of the fatal consequences of ill conduct; the advantages of well-earned
reputation should be at least as great, as certain, and as permanent.
In former times, a single finger pointed at the scutcheon of a knight challenged him to defend his fame; but the defiance
was open, the defence was public; and if the charge proved groundless, it injured none but the malicious accuser. In our
days female reputation, which is of a nature more delicate than the honour of any knight, may be destroyed by the finger
of private malice. The whisper of secret scandal, which admits of no fair or public answer, is too often sufficient to
dishonour a life of spotless fame. This is the height, not only of injustice, but of impolicy. Women will become indifferent
to reputation, which it is so difficult, even by the prudence of years, to acquire, and which it is so easy to lose in a
moment, by the malice or thoughtlessness of those who invent or who repeat scandal. Those who call themselves the
world often judge without listening to evidence, and proceed upon suspicion with as much promptitude and severity as if
they had the most convincing proofs. But because Cæsar, nearly two thousand years ago, said, that his wife ought not
even to be suspected, and divorced her upon the strength of this sentiment, shall we make it a general maxim, that
suspicion justifies punishment? We might as well applaud those, who when their friends are barely suspected to be
tainted with the plague, drive them from all human comfort and assistance.
Even where women, from the thoughtless gaiety of youth, or the impulse of inexperienced enthusiasm, may have given
some slight cause for censure, I would not have virtue put on all her gorgon terrors, nor appear circled by the vengeful
band of prudes; her chastening hand will be more beneficially felt if she wear her more benign form. To place the
imprudent in the same class with the vicious is injustice and impolicy; were the same punishment and the same disgrace
to be affixed to small and to great offences, the number of capital offenders would certainly increase. Those who were
disposed to yield to their passions would, when they had once failed in exact decorum, see no motive, no fear to
restrain them; and there would be no pause, no interval between error and profligacy. Amongst females who have been
imprudent, there are many things to be considered which ought to recommend them to mercy. The judge, when he is
obliged to pronounce the immutable sentence of the law, often, with tears, wishes that it were in his power to mitigate
the punishment: the decisions of opinion may and must vary with circumstances, else the degree of reprobation which
they inflict cannot be proportioned to the offence, or calculated for the good of society. Among the mitigating
circumstances I should be inclined to name even those which you bring in aggravation. Talents, and what is called
genius, in our sex are often connected with a warmth of heart, an enthusiasm of temper, which expose to dangers from
which the coldness of mediocrity is safe. In the illuminated palace of ice, the lights which render the spectacle splendid,
and which raise the admiration of the beholders, endanger the fabric and tend to its destruction.
But you will tell me, dear mother, that allusion is not argument—and I am almost afraid to proceed, lest you should think
me an advocate for vice. I would not shut the gates of mercy, inexorably and indiscriminately, upon all those of my own
sex, who have even been more than imprudent.
"He taught them shame, the sudden sense of ill—
Shame, Nature's hasty conscience, which forbids
Weak inclination ere it grows to will,
Or stays rash will before it grows to deeds."
Whilst a woman is alive to shame, she cannot be dead to virtue. But by injudicious or incessant reproach, this principle,
even where it is most exquisite, may be most easily destroyed. The mimosa, when too long exposed to each rude touch,
loses its retractile sensibility. It ought surely to be the care of the wise and benevolent to cherish that principle, implanted
in our nature as the guard of virtue, that principle upon which legislators rest the force of punishment, and all the grand
interests of society.
My dear mother, perhaps you will be surprised at the style in which I have been writing, and you will smile at hearing
your Leonora discuss the duties of legislators, and the grand interests of society. She has not done so from presumption,
or from affectation. She was alarmed by your supposing that her judgment was deluded by fascinating manners, and she
determined to produce general arguments, to convince you that she is not actuated by particular prepossession. You
see that I have at least some show of reason on my side. I have forborne to mention Olivia's name: but now that I have
obviated, I hope by reasoning, the imputation of partiality, I may observe that all my arguments are strongly in her
favour. She had been attacked by slander; the world has condemned her upon suspicion merely. She has been
imprudent; but I repeat, in the strongest terms, that I am convinced of her innocence; and that I should bitterly regret
that a woman with such an affectionate heart, such uncommon candour, and such superior abilities, should be lost to
society.
Tell me, my dear mother, that you are no longer in anxiety about the consequences of my attachment to Olivia.
Your affectionate daughter,
Leonora.
Letter vi.
The Duchess of —— to her daughter.
You lament, my dear child, that such an affectionate heart, such great abilities as Olivia's should be lost to society.
Before I sympathise in your pity, my judgment must be convinced that it is reasonable.
What proofs has Lady Olivia given of her affectionate heart? She is at variance with both her parents; she is separated
from her husband; and she leaves her child in a foreign country, to be educated by strangers. Am I to understand, that
her ladyship's neglecting to perform the duties of a daughter, a wife, and a mother, are proofs of an affectionate heart?
As to her superior talents, do they contribute to her own happiness, or to the happiness of others? Evidently not to her
own; for by her account of herself, she is one of the most miserable wretches alive! She tells you that "she went to
foreign climes in search of balm for a wounded heart, and wandered from place to place, looking for what no
place could afford." She talks of "indescribable sadness—an aching void—an impenetrable prison—darkness
visible—dead bodies chained to living ones;" and she exhibits all the disordered furniture of a "diseased mind." But
you say, that though her powers are thus insufficient to make herself happy, they may amuse or instruct the world; and
of this I am to judge by the letters which you have sent me. You admire fine writing; so do I. I class eloquence high
amongst the fine arts. But by eloquence I mean something more than Dr Johnson defines it to be, "the art of speaking
with fluency and elegance." This is an art which is now possessed to a certain degree by every boarding-school miss.
Every scribbling young lady can now string sentences and sentiments together, and can turn a period harmoniously.
Upon the strength of these accomplishments they commence heroines, and claim the privileges of the order; privileges
which go to an indefinite and most alarming extent. Every heroine may have her own code of morality for her private
use, and she is to be tried by no other; she may rail as loudly as she pleases "at the barbarous institutions of society,"
and may deplore "the inexorable tyranny of the English laws." If she find herself involved in delicate entanglements of
crossing duties, she may break through any one, or all of them, to extricate herself with a noble contempt of prejudice.
I have promised to reason calmly; but I cannot repress the terror which I feel at the idea of my daughter's becoming the
friend of one of these women. Olivia's letters are, I think, in the true heroine style; and they might make a brilliant figure
in a certain class of novels. She begins with a bold exclamation on "the misfortune of being born a woman!—the slave
or the outcast of society, condemned to incessant hypocrisy!" Does she mean modesty? Her manly soul feels it "the
most degrading punishment that omnipotent cruelty could devise, to be imprisoned in a female form." From such
a masculine spirit some fortitude and magnanimity might be expected; but presently she begs to be pitied, for a broken
spirit, and more than female tenderness of heart. I have observed that the ladies who wish to be men are usually those
who have not sufficient strength of mind to be women.
Olivia proceeds in an ironical strain to envy, as "the happiest of their sex, those who submit to be swathed by
custom." These persons she stigmatizes with the epithet of tideless-blooded. It is the common trick of unprincipled
women to affect to despise those who conduct themselves with propriety. Prudence they term coldness; fortitude,
insensibility; and regard to the rights of others, prejudice. By this perversion of terms they would laugh or sneer virtue
out of countenance; and, by robbing her of all praise, they would deprive her of all immediate motive. Conscious of their
own degradation, they would lower everything, and everybody, to their own standard: they would make you believe,
that those who have not yielded to their passions are destitute of sensibility; that the love which is not blazoned forth in
glaring colours is not entitled to our sympathy. The sacrifice of the strongest feelings of the human heart to a sense of
duty is to be called mean, or absurd; but the shameless phrensy of passion, exposing itself to public gaze, is to be an
object of admiration. These heroines talk of strength of mind; but they forget that strength of mind is to be shown in
resisting their passions, not in yielding to them. Without being absolutely of an opinion, which I have heard maintained,
that all virtue is sacrifice, I am convinced that the essential characteristic of virtue is to bear and forbear. These
sentimentalists can do neither. They talk of sacrifices and generosity; but they are the veriest egotists—the most selfish
creatures alive.
Open your eyes, my dear Leonora, and see things as they really are. Lady Olivia thinks it a sufficient excuse for
abandoning her husband, to say, that she found "his soul was not in unison with hers." She thinks it an adequate
apology for a criminal attachment, to tell you that "the net was thrown over her heart before she felt her danger:
that all its struggles were to no purpose, but to exhaust her strength."
If she did not feel her danger, she prepared it. The course of reading which her ladyship followed was the certain
preparation for her consequent conduct. She tells us that she could not endure "the commonplace of morality, but
metaphysics promised her some relief." In these days a heroine need not be a moralist, but she must be a
metaphysician. She must "wander in the not inelegant labyrinth;" and if in the midst of it she comes unawares upon
the monster vice, she must not start, though she have no clue to secure her retreat.
From metaphysics Lady Olivia went on to German novels. "For her largest portions of bliss, for those rapt
moments which consigned vulgar realities to oblivion," she owns herself indebted to those writers, who promise an
ideal world of pleasure, which, like the mirage in the desert, bewilders the feverish imagination. I always suspected the
imagination of these women of feeling to be more susceptible than their hearts. They want excitation for their morbid
sensibility, and they care not at what expense it is procured. If they could make all the pleasures of life into one cordial
they would swallow it at a draught in a fit of sentimental spleen. The mental intemperance that they indulge in
promiscuous novel-reading destroys all vigour and clearness of judgment; everything dances in the varying medium of
their imagination. Sophistry passes for reasoning; nothing appears profound but what is obscure; nothing sublime but
what is beyond the reach of mortal comprehension. To their vitiated taste the simple pathos, which o'ersteps not the
modesty of nature, appears cold, tame, and insipid; they must have scènes and a coup de théâtre; and ranting, and
raving, and stabbing, and drowning, and poisoning; for with them there is no love without murder. Love, in their
representations, is indeed a distorted, ridiculous, horrid monster, from whom common sense, taste, decency, and nature
recoil.
But I will be calm.—You say, my dear Leonora, that your judgment has not been blinded by Lady Olivia's fascinating
manners; but that you are strongly influenced in her favour by that candour, with which she has revealed to you all her
faults. The value of candour in individuals should be measured by their sensibility to shame. When a woman throws off
all restraint, and then desires me to admire her candour, I am astonished only at her assurance. Do not be the dupe of
such candour. Lady Olivia avows a criminal passion, yet you say that you have no doubts of her innocence. The
persuasion of your unsuspecting heart is no argument: when you give me any proofs in her favour, I shall pay them all
due attention. In the meantime I have given you my opinion of those ladies who place themselves in the most perilous
situations, and then expect you to believe them safe.
Olivia's professions of regard for you are indeed enthusiastic. She tells you, that "your power is unlimited over her
heart and understanding, that your friendship would be to her one of the greatest of earthly blessings." May be
so—but I cannot wish you to be her friend. With whatever confidence she makes the assertion, do not believe that she
has a heart capable of feeling the value of yours. These sentimental, unprincipled women make the worst friends in the
world. We are often told that, "poor creatures! they do nobody any harm but themselves;" but in society it is scarcely
possible for a woman to do harm to herself without doing harm to others; all her connexions must be involved in the
consequences of her imprudence. Besides, what confidence can you repose in them? If you should happen to be an
obstacle in the way of any of their fancies, do you think that they will respect you or your interest, when they have not
scrupled to sacrifice their own to the gratification of their passions? Do you think that the gossamer of sentiment will
restrain those whom the strong chains of prudence could not hold?
O! my dearest child, forcibly as these arguments carry conviction to my mind, I dread lest your compassionate,
generous temper should prevent their reaching your understanding. Then let me conjure you, by all the respect which
you have ever shown for your mother's opinions, by all that you hold dear or sacred, beware of forming an intimacy
with an unprincipled woman. Believe me to be
Your truly affectionate mother,
Letter vij.
Leonora to her mother.
No daughter ever felt more respect for the opinions of a parent than I do for yours, my dearest mother; but you have
never, even from childhood, required from me a blind submission—you have always encouraged me to desire
conviction. And now, when the happiness of another is at stake, you will forgive me if I am less disposed to yield than I
should be, I hope, if my own interest or taste were alone concerned.
You ask me what proofs I have of Lady Olivia's innocence. Believe me, I have such as are convincing to my unbiassed
judgment, and such as would be sufficient to satisfy all your doubts, were I at liberty to lay the whole truth before you.
But even to exculpate herself, Olivia will not ruin in your opinion her husband, of whom you imagine that she has no
reason to complain. I, who know how anxious she is to obtain your esteem, can appreciate the sacrifice that she makes;
and in this instance, as in many others, I admire her magnanimity; it is equal to her candour, for which she is entitled to
praise even by your own principles, dear mother: since, far from having thrown off all restraint, she is exquisitely
susceptible of shame.
As to her understanding—have no persons of great talents ever been unfortunate? Frequently we see that they have not
been able, by all their efforts and all their powers, to remedy the defects in the characters and tempers of those with
whom they have unhappily been connected. Olivia married very young, and was unfortunately mistaken in her choice of
a husband: on that subject I can only deplore her error and its consequences: but as to her disagreements with her own
family, I do not think her to blame. For the mistakes we make in the choice of lovers or friends we may be answerable,
but we cannot be responsible for the faults of the relations who are given to us by nature. If we do not please them, it
may be our misfortune; it is not necessarily our fault. I cannot be more explicit, without betraying Lady Olivia's
confidence, and implicating others in defending her.
With respect to that attachment of which you speak with so much just severity, she has given me the strongest
assurances that she will do everything in her power to conquer it. Absence, you know, is the first and the most difficult
step, and this she has taken. Her course of reading displeases you: I cannot defend it: but I am persuaded that it is not a
proof of her taste being vitiated. Many people read ordinary novels as others take snuff, merely from habit, from the
want of petty excitation; and not, as you suppose, from the want of exorbitant or improper stimulus. Those who are
unhappy have recourse to any trifling amusement that can change the course of their thoughts. I do not justify Olivia for
having chosen such comforters as certain novels, but I pity her and impute this choice to want of fortitude, not to
depravity of taste. Before she married, a strict injunction was laid upon her not to read any book that was called a
novel: this raised in her mind a sort of perverse curiosity. By making any books or opinions contraband, the desire to
read and circulate them is increased; bad principles are consequently smuggled into families, and being kept secret, can
never be subject to fair examination. I think it must be advantageous to the right side of any question, that all which can
be said against it should be openly heard, that it may be answered. I do not
"Hate when vice can bolt her arguments;"
for I know that virtue has a tongue to answer her. The more vice repeats her assertions, the better; because when
familiarized, their boldness will not astound the understanding, and the charm of novelty will not be mistaken for the
power of truth. We may observe, that the admiration for the class of writers to whom you allude, though violent in its
commencement, has abated since they have been more known; and numbers, who began with rapture, have ended with
disgust. Person of vivacious imaginations, like Olivia, may be caught at first view by whatever has the appearance of
grandeur or sublimity; but if time be allowed for examination, they will infallibly detect the disproportions, and these will
ever afterwards shock their taste: if you will not allow leisure for comparison—if you say, do not look at such strange
objects, the obedient eyes may turn aside, but the rebel imagination pictures something a thousand times more
wonderful and charming than the reality. I will venture to predict, that Olivia will soon be tired of the species of novels
which she now admires, and that, once surfeited with these books, and convinced of their pernicious effects, she will
never relapse into the practice of novel reading.
As to her taste for metaphysical books——Dear mother, I am very daring to differ with you in so many points; but
permit me to say, that I do not agree with you in detesting metaphysics. People may lose themselves in that labyrinth;
but why should they meet with vice in the midst of it? The characters of a moralist, a practical moralist, and a
metaphysician, are not incompatible, as we may see in many amiable and illustrious examples. To examine human
motives, and the nature of the human mind, is not to destroy the power of virtue, or to increase the influence of vice.
The chemist, after analysing certain substances, and after discovering their constituent parts, can lay aside all that is
heterogeneous, and recompound the substance in a purer state. From analogy we might infer, that the motives of
metaphysicians ought to be purer than those of the vulgar and ignorant. To discover the art of converting base into noble
passions, or to obtain a universal remedy for all mental diseases, is perhaps beyond the power of metaphysicians; but in
the pursuit useful discoveries may be made.
As to Olivia's letters—I am sorry I sent them to you; for I see that they have lowered, instead of raising her in your
opinion. But if you criticise letters, written in openness and confidence of heart to a private friend, as if they were set
before the tribunal of the public, you are—may I say it?—not only severe, but unjust; for you try and condemn the
subjects of one country by the laws of another.
Dearest mother, be half as indulgent to Olivia as you are to me: indeed you are prejudiced against her, and because you
see some faults, you think her whole character vicious. But would you cut down a fine tree because a leaf is withered,
or because the canker-worm has eaten into the bud? Even if a main branch were decayed, are there not remedies
which, skilfully applied, can save the tree from destruction, and perhaps restore it to its pristine beauty?
And now, having exhausted all my allusions, all my arguments, and all my little stock of eloquence, I must come to a
plain matter of fact—
Before I received your letter I had invited Lady Olivia to spend some time at L—— Castle. I fear that you will blame
my precipitation, and I reproach myself for it, because I know it will give you pain. However, though you will think me
imprudent, I am certain you would rather that I were imprudent than unjust. I have defended Olivia from what I believe
to be unmerited censure; I have invited her to my house; she has accepted my proffered kindness; to withdraw it
afterwards would be doing her irreparable injury: it would confirm all that the world can suspect: it would be saying to
the censorious—I am convinced that you are right, and I deliver your victim up to you.
Thus I should betray the person whom I undertook to defend: her confidence in me, her having but for a moment
accepted my protection, would be her ruin. I could not act in so base a manner.
Fear nothing for me, my best, but too anxious friend. I may do Lady Olivia some good; she can do me no harm. She
may learn the principles which you have taught me; I can never catch from her any tastes or habits which you would
disapprove. As to the rest, I hazard little or nothing. The hereditary credit which I enjoy in my maternal right enables me
to assist others without injuring myself.
Your affectionate daughter,
Leonora.
Letter viij.
The Duchess of —— to her daughter.
My dearest Child,
I hope that you are in the right, and that I am in the wrong.
Your affectionate mother,
Letter ix.
Olivia to Madame de P——.
Prepare yourself, my ever dear and charming Gabrielle, for all the torments of jealousy. Know, that since I came to
England I have formed a new friendship with a woman who is interesting in the extreme, who has charmed me by the
simplicity of her manners and the generous sensibility of her heart. Her character is certainly too reserved: yet even this
defect has perhaps increased her power over my imagination, and consequently over my affections. I know not by what
magic she has obtained it, but she has already an ascendency over me, which would quite astonish you, who know my
wayward fancies and independent spirit.
Alas! I confess my heart is weak indeed; and I fear that all the power of friendship and philosophy combined will never
strengthen it sufficiently. O, Gabrielle! how can I hope to obliterate from my soul that attachment which has marked the
colour of my destiny for years? Yet such courage, such cruel courage is required of me, and of such I have boasted
myself capable. Lady Leonora L——, my new friend, has, by all the English eloquence of virtue, obtained from me a
promise, which, I fear, I shall not have the fortitude to keep—but I must make the attempt——Forbid R*** to write to
me——Yes! I have written the words——Forbid R*** to write to me——Forbid him to think of me——I will do
more—if possible I will forbid myself henceforward to think of him—to think of love—Adieu, my Gabrielle——All the
illusions of life are over, and a dreary blank of future existence lies before me, terminated only by the grave. To-morrow
I go to L—— Castle, with feelings which I can compare only to those of the unfortunate la Vallière when she
renounced her lover, and resolved to bury herself in a cloister.—Alas! why have not I the resource of devotion?
Your unhappy
Olivia.
Letter x.
General B—— to Mr L——.
Publish my travels!—Not I, my dear friend. The world shall never have the pleasure of laughing at General B——'s trip
to Paris. Before a man sets about to inform others, he should have seen, not only the surface but the bottom of things;
he should have had, not only a vue d'oiseau, but (to use a celebrated naval commander's expression) a vue de poisson
of his subject. By this time you must have heard enough of the Louvre and the Tuilleries, and Versailles, and la petit
Trianon, and St Cloud—and you have had enough of pictures and statues; and you know all that can be known of
Bonaparté, by seeing him at a review or a levee; and the fashionable beauties and celebrated characters of the hour
have all passed and repassed through the magic lantern. A fresh showman might make his figures a little more correct,
or a little more in laughable caricature, but he could produce nothing new. Alas! there is nothing new under the sun.
Nothing remains for the moderns, but to practise the oldest follies and newest ways. Would you, for the sake of your
female friends, know the fashionable dress of a Parisian elegante, see Seneca on the transparent vestments of the
Roman ladies, who, like these modern belles, were generous in the display of their charms to the public. No doubt these
French republicanists act upon the true Spartan principle of modesty: they take the most efficacious method to prevent
their influence from being too great over the imaginations of men, by renouncing all that insidious reserve which alone
can render even beauty permanently dangerous.
Of the cruelties of the revolution I can tell you nothing new. The public have been steeped up to the lips in blood, and
have surely had their fill of horrors.
But, my dear friend, you say that I must be able to give a just view of the present state of French society, and of the
best parts of it, because I have not, like some of my countrymen, hurried about Paris from one spectacle to another,
seen the opera, and the play-houses, and the masked balls, and the gaming-houses, and the women of the Palais
Royale, and the lions of all sorts; gone through the usual routine of presentation and public dinners, drunk French wine,
damned French cookery, and "come home content." I have certainly endeavoured to employ my time better, and have
had the good fortune to be admitted into the best private societies in Paris. These were composed of the remains of
the French nobility, of men of letters and science, and of families, who, without interfering in politics, devote themselves
to domestic duties, to literary and social pleasures. The happy hours I have passed in this society can never be
forgotten, and the kindness I have received has made its full impression upon an honest English heart. I will never
disgrace the confidence of my friends by drawing their characters for the public.
Cæsar, in all his glory, and all his despotism, could not, with impunity, force a Roman knight[1] to go upon the stage: but
modern anecdote-mongers, more cruel and insolent than Cæsar, force their friends of all ages and sexes to appear, and
speak, and act, for the amusement or derision of the public.
My dear friend, is not my resolution, never to favour the world with my tour, well grounded? I hope that I have proved
to your satisfaction, that I could tell people nothing but what I do not understand, or what is not worth telling them, or
what has been told them a hundred times, or what, as a gentleman, I am bound not to publish.
Yours truly,
J. B.
Letter xi.
Olivia to Madame de P——.
L—— Castle.
Friendship, my amiable and interesting Gabrielle, is more an affair of the heart than of the head, more the instinct of taste
than the choice of reason. With me the heart is no longer touched, when the imagination ceases to be charmed. Explain
to me this metaphysical phenomenon of my nature,...
